You’d Think They’d Know Better, But These Politicians Committed The Wildest Crimes Of The 20th Century

You would think that as purveyors and architects of the law, that politicians would be the last people to commit felonies. Yet time and time again, politicians have proven us wrong after getting exposed for committing some ridiculous crimes over the last 100 years. One elected official even attempted to murder his wife with a butcher knife…

Sol Wachtler Threatened To Kidnap A 15-Year-Old Girl Because He Was Jealous

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Sol Wachtler was Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1985 to 1992. He made national news after he was convicted of extortion, interstate racketeering, and blackmail. Most notably, Wachtler was convicted of harassing Republican fundraiser Joy Silverman when their affair came to an end. According to reports, Wachtler not only sent a condom to Silverman’s daughter in the mail, but he also threatened to kidnap her, in addition to sending harassing letters under the fictional guise of a Texas politician. Wachtler resigned from his post as a judge and was sentenced to 15 months in jail, of which he served 13.

The Night Lloyd Davis Lost His Good Judgement

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In 1969, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lloyd Davis stabbed his wife with a butcher knife and was charged with felony assault to commit murder. The incident happened when police were called to Davis’ home after an altercation in which Davis slapped his daughter for going to the Roman Catholic Church when he told her not to. The next thing he knew, Davis had stabbed his wife while they were washing dishes together. At his trial, Davis said, “Well, I think I just went off my rocker,” and in 1970 he was acquitted by reason of insanity, The Los Angeles Times reported.

William L. Slocum Carelessly Poisoned His Local Water Supply

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William L. Slocum, who served as a Republican member of the Pensylvania State Senate from 1997 to 2000 was charged with violating the Clean Water Act from 1983 to 1995. In charge of operating the Youngsville Sewage Treatment Plant, Slocum allowed more than 3.5 million gallons of untreated sewage to be dumped into Brokenstraw Creek, which was a popular local fishing stream. He was also charged with falsifying reports to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Slocum pleaded guilty and was let off relatively easy as he was sentenced to a month in jail, five months on house arrest, and fined $15,000.

Jerome Epstein Was Exposed As An Oil Pirate

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Jerome Epstein was a Republican member of the New Jersey Senate from 1972 to 1974. In 1977, Epstein was sentenced to nine years in federal prison after being convicted of pirating oil with an estimated worth of $4 million. According to the Observer in what was apparently a “systematic series of thefts that began in 1968,” Epstein — whose family owned fuel companies and gas stations — rented a barge, recruited a crew, and stole 12 million gallons of oil from Exxon tanks. Epstein got away with it at first by rigging the gauges on the barge to make it look like he only siphoned 2,000 gallons of oil as opposed to 4,000.

Keep reading to see who hired his own cousin to shoot him to gain sympathy.

These Politicians Got In Trouble For Racking Up Quite A Phone Bill

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Minnesota State Senator Sam Solon was a well-respected politician during his 30 years serving office. However, in 1996, the Senator pleaded guilty to charges of communication fraud. It was revealed that Solon allowed his ex-wife to make over $2,000-worth of taxpayer-funded phone calls on his Senate line. He also let a lobbyist make $3,000-worth of calls from the same line three years earlier. On a similar note, Nebraska State Treasurer Frank Marsh was convicted of misdemeanor charges. He abused his resources to make personal, long-distance phone calls in 1991.

Daniel Delp Probably Should Have Used His Own Money For This

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Daniel S. Delp was a Republican member of the Pennsylvania State Senate from 1995 to 1998. When the time came for re-election, Delp decided to remove himself from the race after the public found out what he did during his term. Delp was prosecuted for using a Senatorial expense account to hire a prostitute. It might sound like your typical political sex scandal but it gets worse. Not only was the prostitute just 19 years old, Delp also used the Senate funds to purchase food and alcohol which he served to the prostitute, who was underage.

Mike Martin Hoped Getting Shot Would Help His Campaign

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Mike Martin was a former Republican Texas State Representative from 1981 to 1982. Around the time that he was preparing to run for the Texas State Senate, Martin was shot numerous times in the arm and claimed that he was targeted by a Satanic cult that he was investigating. However, it wasn’t long before the truth came out and Martin’s cousin, Charles Goff, came forward to admit that he was the one who shot Martin after Martin failed to pay him for the favor. Apparently, Martin had hired Goff to shoot him as a publicity stunt that was inspired by John Hinkley’s failed assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan.

Drew Nixon Got Hustled By A Female Hustler… Who Was Actually A Cop

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Drew Nixon, a former Republican senator from Texas who served from 1995 to 2001, has a tarnished reputation after his dalliances with prostitutes and loaded weapons. In 1997, Nixon was arrested after soliciting sexual favors from an undercover police officer who was posing as a prostitute. Nixon was also charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon since police found a loaded revolver under the front seat of his car when he didn’t have a state permit to carry a concealed handgun. It seems that old habits die hard since Nixon was reportedly arrested in 1993 for having a concealed, loaded weapon in his car with three prostitutes.

Mel Reynolds Got Re-Elected Despite Being A Creeper

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Mel Reynolds resigned from Congress after a conviction of statutory rape in 1995. The former Democratic Illinois Representative was indicted in 1994 after an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer came to light. Although he managed to get re-elected with no opposition, he resigned after a conviction of 12 counts of sexual assault, obstruction of justice, and solicitation of child pornography. Sentenced to five years in prison, Reynolds expected to be released by 1998, but in 1997 he was again convicted on 16 unrelated accounts of bank fraud, misuse of campaign funds, and lying to FEC investigators.

Marion Barry Got Caught Smoking…

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In 1990 Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was arrested for illegal drug possession and use. The FBI partnered with local District of Columbia police in a joint sting operation at the Vista Hotel. Rasheeda Moore, a former girlfriend of Barry, was working as an FBI informant and convinced Barry to smoke crack cocaine, while agents were watching on camera from another room. During the arrest, Barry infamously said, “[expletive] set me up! I shouldn’t have come up here…” Barry was sentenced to six months in jail. In 1994, he re-entered politics and was miraculously elected for his fourth mayoral term.

Coming up: This Kennedy brother apparently did all that he could to prevent a woman from drowning…

Dan White Murdered Harvey Milk And The SF Mayor

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Dan White was elected as a Democrat to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977 and is notorious for the murders of fellow member Harvey Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. By 1978, frequent clashes with Milk and other board members led White to resign, only to reverse his resignation a few days later. While Moscone was initially open to giving White his seat back, other members including Milk were against it. Upset that he wouldn’t be reinstated, White snuck into City Hall and shot both Moscone and Milk. As opposed to first-degree murder, White was charged with manslaughter on the grounds of insanity.

The Iran-Contra Affair Was Just Messy

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The Iran-Contra affair started as an attempt to free seven American hostages held in Lebanon. Senior administration officials attempted to facilitate the sale of missiles to Iran by way of Israel. Lieutenant Colonel Oliver Noth of the National Security Council modified the plan in 1985. They arranged it so that some of the proceeds from the weapon sales would fund the Contras, a dangerous Nicaraguan rebel group. This violated the Boland Amendment, in which Congress prohibited further government funding to the group.

The full extent of Regan’s knowledge of the details behind getting the hostages back came into question. He appeared on television to say, “what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages.”

Is Ted Kennedy Technically Responsible For Murder?

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U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, JFK’s youngest brother, was involved in the Chappaquiddick incident in 1969. Kennedy and a woman named Mary Jo Kopechne were driving home from a party when he accidentally drove his car off a one-lane bridge and into a tidal channel. Kennedy allegedly tried in vain to save Kopechne before he himself swam to safety. For some reason, he didn’t report the accident to police for ten hours and Kopechne ended up dying in the car, which was submerged in water. Kennedy was charged with leaving the scene of a crash and causing personal injury and only received a two-month suspended jail sentence.

William Langer Locked Himself Away

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When William Langer was elected as North Dakota governor in 1932, he required all state employees to donate part of their salaries to the Nonpartisan League and to a weekly paper owned by high-ranking officials in Langer’s administration. Although this was common in many states, the federal government became concerned when donations were made by highway department employees who were funded through federal relief programs. This was seen as a conspiracy to defraud the federal government and by 1934, Langer was found guilty and was ordered removed from office. However, Langer barricaded himself in his office, declared North Dakota independent, and declared martial law until the Supreme Court would meet with him.

Operation Rocky Top Took Down Illegal Bingo In Tennessee

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Operation Rocky Top was a FBI investigation of public corruption within the Tenessee state government that launched in 1986. At the time, Randy McNally was a first-year member of the Tenessee House of Representatives. He contacted authorities when he was approached by former state bingo regulator W.D. Walker. Walker offered the congressman $10,000 to vote in favor of legal horse racing. Walker pleaded guilty and admitted that he helped bingo operators create bogus charities to obtain bingo licenses. He also admitted that the funds were channeled back to state legislators, who were in on the scheme. At least four politicians were targets in the sting and two more committed suicide before they could testify.

William Goebel Was Murdered By His Opponents In 1900

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In 1899, Democrat William Goebel beat out Republican William S. Taylor in the race for Kentucky Governor. In January 1900, Goebel was shot several times by an assassin and was sworn into office the next day. However, he would be dead by February. Sixteen people were indicted for the murder, including Taylor, who had fled to Indiana but was never extradited and therefore never questioned. Taylor’s Secretary of State Caleb Powers was convicted for conspiracy to commit murder after investigators determined that Powers was the mastermind who came up with the plan in order to keep Taylor in office.

John W. Langley Couldn’t Be Stopped By The Prohibition

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In 1926, Republican Representative from Kentucky John W. Langley resigned from his seat after he was convicted of illegally selling alcohol and trying to bribe a prohibition officer. This was discovered after Langley deposited $115,000 in his bank account over three years, despite his salary of $7,500 a year as a congressman. Langley’s wife Katherine ran for her husband’s seat and won, claiming that he was the victim of a conspiracy and she hoped to clear his name. While in office, she managed to get President Calvin Coolidge to grant her husband a pardon.

The Greatest Political Scandal Of The 20th Century

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Everyone knows about the notorious Watergate Scandal of the early ’70s. It all started when five men were caught breaking into the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., home to the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Investigators soon found a connection between the break-in and the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, who at the time was Richard Nixon. They also found that Nixon had tape-recording systems set up in his White House offices and when the tapes were released to government investigators, it was revealed that Nixon deliberately tried to cover up the activities surrounding the break-in. Nixon resigned from the presidency in 1974 before the House could impeach him.

The Teapot Dome Scandal Shocked America

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Before Watergate, the Teapot Dome scandal was considered the “greatest and most sensational scandal in the history of American politics.” In 1921, former New Mexico Senator Albert B. Fall was appointed as Secretary of the Interior by President Warren G. Harding, who also wanted Fall to be in charge of Naval Reserves in California and Teapot Dome, Wyoming. A year later, the Wall Street Journal exposed Fall’s plans to illegally lease parts of Teapot Dome to oilmen for over $400,000. As a result, Fall was sentenced to prison. Interestingly, Fall was also previously suspected of the murder of rival politician Albert Fountain and his son in 1896.

James R. Lewis Tried To Build A Laser-Gun That Could Blind People

In 1979 James R. Lewis, a Republican member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, pleaded guilty to perjury and lying to a federal grand jury about a laser-gun scheme. Lewis was part of a group that attempted to persuade Myron Muckerheide, a laser scientist who previously worked for NASA, to build a laser-gun “designed to blind people.” The group planned to sell the laser-gun to Guatemalan Colonel Federico Fuentes and use the funds to build a laetrile factory in South America. Lewis and the group were caught after Muckerheide contacted the FBI. Lewis lost his Assembly seat as a result.